Tomtom vs. Garmin

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If this occurred on a Garmin GPS, my first suggestion would be to check your Avoidances. If Tolls are to be avoided, you'd be routed in a way to avoid the bridge.

Could it be that your Tom Tom has a toll avoidance? That'd account for routing you south rather than through the UP.

If toll avoidances are active (with Garmin, TT or whatever), turn off the Toll avoidance and you'll again be routed over the toll bridge to take the short way home...

Is the bridge a toll bridge? Do you have an avoidance of toll roads set on the TomTom? A Garmin will give a similar route if you have a preference set to avoid tolls.

That said, I had a TomTom stand alone unit... notice, I said had...

Good luck on finding a Garmin that suits your needs and wants.

That is a thought, but there are also many tollways in Chicagoland. As soon as I entered Gladstone, MI as the destination, I got the correct route.

Yup, a $4/automobile toll with an active GPS toll avoidance could make you spend the extra time, extra gas expenses, etc. and head through IN and IL. Even then, it'd make things worse since it'd also avoid IN and IL tollways.

Assuming tolls are to be avoided on your TT, you would also be routed away from the various tollways in Chicago and that'd probably route you through city streets or send you west of Chicago to get home.

You really need to check your TT's settings and look for avoidances, then see which avoidances are active.

Another Garmin issue that sometimes results in odd routing is setting the device for pedestrian or bicycle mode rather than motor vehicle mode.

As you can tell, folks here at The Factory believe you'll find the TT routed you south because you constrained its ability to find the route you had expected. (Or...the latest map update for the TT forgot that there is a bridge to the UP!)

in San Francisco, coming back from Marin County...

I had Garmin set to Avoid Toll Roads....

(Golden Gate Bridge is toll Southbound only), so It didn't "Flag as a problem"' on the way "UP").

And you were routed through Chicago as a result?

What is worst than being on a far away place without a PND, beig in a far away place with the wrong settings in the PND

Just like an airplane pilot you must check your vehicle before embarking on a trip, air in the tires, water in the radiator, oil level, gas in the tank and the correct settings in the GPS unit.

A bit off the topic.

Last April I left friends in Wichita,Ks driving home via Detroit. I got to Kansas City and my 3790 crapped out on me. NO map, no GPS. I saw a sign for Luisville,Ky and followed it. A real long detour!!

Am I the only one who relies almost totally on my GPS and does not use paper maps.

BTW: I will now have my 855 along on very long trips as back-up if the need arises again

In addition to ensuring you have the settings you want (not the factory pre-sets), occassionally any PND will offer a different route than you want/expect. What I do is start in the direction I want to go and usually my GO930 will re-route to what I wanted in the first place. Of course, this presumes you know the direction you want to go.

I have taken the *scenic route* when in Europe and I did not know the way to go and did not have a map with me other than on my TT. Had I taken a few minutes to look at the route and the map on the TT, I would have saved myself some time, but then I would not seen the additional scenery!

take my third gps with me for back-up.

My TT knew how to get to Gladstone - which is across the Big Mac bridge - but it didn't like the WIS town a hundred miles beyond it. I will take a look at the settings, but my TT is outdated anyway, and I am looking forward to seeing how a Garmin (or other brand) will handle the same scenario.

When I first got my TomTom, it took me through a series of set-up screens that included how I wanted to deal with toll roads. I almost checked "Always Avoid" because all of the toll roads in the area I live save very little distance, and save time only at rush hour - when I would not normally be driving in those areas. I saw no reason to spend the money that those roads cost.

However, I remembered a couple of areas back East where there are toll roads that save significant distance and time. As a consequence, I checked "Always Ask Me" on that set-up screen. It occasionally costs me an extra screen click when planning a route, but is an insurance policy for strange areas where toll roads may or may not be worth their cost to me.

I did the same thing with the set-up question about avoiding taking a Ferry, but I have yet to be asked about that on any route that I have planned.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

The bridge crossing the Mississippi at Fort Madison Iowa collects toll for E/B but not W/B. It has been that way for 40 years that I know of. I set up the avoidance and ran the simulation. My Garmin did not get the memo. It avoids for both directions.

No, Instead of the 4-6 mile trip across Golden Gate Bridge direct in SF, as we had earlier in day, It tried to route us northeast, then southeast to Oakland, South to San Jose, then North up Bayshore Freeway to SF Fisherman's Wharf area, where our hotel was... In other words, the long way around the Bay Area, instead of direct (The way it had routed us earlier in the day)...
Forgot the mileage, but I believe it wanted 5-6 hours to do so...

It was directly related to Toll Road Avoidances, made more confusing by toll only being charged Southbound on Golden Gate Bridge...

I just planned a route from Mackinaw, MI to Green Bay, WI on my TomTom GO 720. It asked me if I wanted to avoid tolls and I chose "No". The route took me over the Mackinac Bridge and across the top of Lake Michigan, just like you thought it should.

Are you sure you know how to operate your "piece of crap"?

That's a map issue that Garmin's map provider should be able to fix. FWIW my TomTom recognized that the Tacoma Narrows Bridge only charges a toll in one direction when I crossed a few weeks ago.

What puzzles me is that he said that he has an older model and that he has updated the maps on it. This implies that he has been using the GPS for some years, which in turn implies that he has considered it acceptable until it gave him a long routing because he told it to avoid toll roads.

If I had been using something for a long time and it suddenly gave me strange results, I would look for "what changed", rather than assuming that the product became a "piece of crap" overnight.

With best wishes,
- Tom -